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Jennifer Little
027 453 4562
j.little@massey.ac.nz
news.massey.ac.nz
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Former cop’s study tackles Thai sex trafficking
A former New Zealand police officer and
Massey University master’s graduate has
made recommendations to Thailand’s
national police organisation on how to
fight against illegal sex trafficking.
Francis Maiava, who undertook the
research project during a three-year stint
living in Bangkok, says the scale of the
problem is overwhelming in Thailand.
His study, titled Community policing as a
law enforcement strategy to help prevent
the trafficking in Burmese women and girls
for the purpose of sexual exploitation in
Thailand, explores the diverse nature of
human trafficking at the Thai-Burmese border. It examines various international, national and regional
anti-trafficking laws and proposes innovative approaches – such as community policing – as a key tool to
combat human trafficking.
The study broaches the murky territory where police officers mandated to combat illegal sex trafficking
are often part of the corrupt system that enables traffickers. His research revealed numerous accounts of
police and immigration officers being bribed by traffickers at border entry points to ignore their activities.
Mr Maiava, who focussed mainly on the plight of Burmese women, was awarded the Strategic Advisory
Board Prize for Top Student in the Master of International Security programme at a conference hosted by
Massey’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies at its Auckland campus last week.
He says his research – which he has presented to two high-ranking Thai police superintendents – was
driven by an awareness of the potential for community policing and the hope it could make a difference to
the safety of migrant communities in Thailand. He was living with his family in Bangkok, where his wife
was working for the New Zealand government when he decided to research the topic. His research was
supervised by Dr Nick Gilmour, a New Zealand Police Teaching Fellow at the centre.
Mr Maiava encountered frontline victims of the sex trade after befriending two Bangkok-based New
Zealand-born Samoans who run a rugby academy for children in outlying slums. He became involved
with the academy, called Nak Suu Rugby Academy, to help the children of migrant workers from Burma
whose parents worked all day, left at home unsupervised and with nothing to do. The academy, which
translates as ‘Noble Warrior’, also offers tutoring on reading and writing. Mr Maiava discovered that many
of the children’s mothers and older sisters were working in the sex trade, and were victims of sex
traffickers operating in the slums, prompting his concern and interest in researching policing measures to
improve their safety.

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He says the migratory journey of people from the Greater Mekong Sub-region – including from Burma,
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – in search of better opportunities in a foreign land, is fraught with dangers,
which in turn, increases their vulnerability to human trafficking. An added complexity is that victims do not
always see themselves as such because they are prepared to take huge risks in being exploited so they
can send money to their families back home, he says.
A website dedicated to fighting human trafficking states that many of Thailand’s estimated 425,500
trafficking victims are forced into labour in the fishing, construction and garment industries, while an
estimated 60,000 young people aged between 12 and 20 are part of the illegal sex trade.
“Burmese women and girls are unwittingly lured by traffickers into false promises of better jobs, lifestyle
and education only to be exploited in Thailand by having their travel documents confiscated and forced to
work in slavery-like conditions, under debt bondage, in karaoke bars, brothels, massage parlours and
restaurants,” Mr Maiava says in his report.
They become dependent on their traffickers due to the language barrier in Thailand, he says. “As a result,
they are susceptible to forced prostitution and subjected to the control of pimps, brothel owners and
criminal networks aided by corrupt state officials.”
Mr Maiava, a building compliance investigator for Auckland Council, and previously a detective constable
and community constable in Palmerston North, says recruiting Burmese men and women into Thai
community policing units would help break down language barriers. It would also help dispel entrenched
mistrust, fear of authority and stigma experienced by victims of sex trafficking, which deters them from
seeking help through the police and justice systems.
Community policing has proven successful in places like Singapore and Malaysia where sex trafficking is
also rampant, he says.
“Theoretically, Thailand’s anti-trafficking legislation advocates prevention as a core element of the
criminal justice system’s response to curbing trafficking,” he says in his report. But in reality, he says the
legislation is “mere rhetoric”.
Mr Maiava is one of over 100 graduates of the Masters of International Security programme at Massey
since the degree was made available in 2012.
Caption: Francis Maiava receiving his award for top student in the Master of International Security
programme from Carolyn Tremain (chief executive and Comptroller for the New Zealand Customs
Service) and Professor Rouben Azizian, Director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies.